[01:00:00] ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello and welcome everyone. You are watching CNN NEWSROOM, I’m Rosemary Church. Ahead this hour, warnings that a confrontation at sea could grow into a full-scale war. Neither Russia nor Ukraine shows signs of backing down in their latest diplomatic standoff. Plus, a bombshell report claims WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange met privately with Donald Trump’s former Campaign Chairman. And a special CNN investigation looks at the rise of the far-right in Europe and neo-Nazis are finding new ways to express the same old hatred.

One hour from now Ukraine will impose martial law in areas it says are under threat from Russia. Ukraine’s president warns there’s a risk of full-scale war. He also says the U.S. has pledged its assistance including military support. The tensions come after Russia sees three Ukrainian ships and more than 20 troops on Sunday. Moscow has released video of some of the sailors appearing to give confessions. Ukraine says they did so under duress. CNN’s Nick Paton Walsh has more now from Kiev.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We are matter of hours away for a martial law here in Ukraine, a kind of unprecedented moment, ten regions under heightened control air defenses, military activity, cyber defenses, and the possibility held up by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko that he might hasn’t decided yet. He might restrict entry into Ukraine for Russian citizens. In fact, he warned in a recent interview just there in the last few hours of the potential a full-scale Russian military operation against Ukraine still in fact remains.

And this really is just evocative of how shaken this nation has been since Sunday’s events in the Kerch Strait where Russian boats rammed Ukrainian boats 24, 23 perhaps Ukrainian sailors taken prisoner. Twelve of them sentenced to two months in jail. Just a day another dozen potentially facing a similar court appearance just in the hours ahead of me now. And the broader question really being where is the international community’s reaction. Ukraine has been at war against Russia for the past four years and some degree or other since Russia invaded Crimea. But often it’s been out of the headlines this has lurched into a global view because it was the Russian military without disguising, without separatist proxies directly attacking the Ukrainian military. That has many deeply concerned that perhaps we are seeing a new moment of Russia is trying to work out quite how far it can push the limits here in Ukraine’s East.

And we’ve heard a confusing reaction frankly from the West back in 2014, Barack Obama led the international community to condemn Russia in intervening in Crimea. We’ve seen many Western leaders condemn Russian aggression but the White House be confused in its reaction. Cabinet officials condemning aggression but Donald Trump saying he’s not happy either way suggesting that perhaps Ukraine or Russia are both perhaps somehow to blame and asked, in fact, this day in the last few hours is National Security Advisor John Bolton in fact simply referred back to statements made of the U.N. by the U.S. Ambassador there Nikki Haley condemning Russia.

It seems an extraordinary reluctance persist in the White House to won the podium there condemn Russia in its actions here. And that has many Ukrainians worried that in fact that will embolden the Kremlin to see what else it could perhaps get away with. Nick Paton Walsh, CNN Kiev.

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CHURCH: And for analysis, let’s bring in Michael Bociurkiw. He is a Global Affairs Analyst and a former Spokesperson for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Thank you so much for being with us.

MICHAEL BOCIURKIW, GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: My pleasure.

CHURCH: So Ukraine’s president is warning that Russia could launch a full-scale war. How likely is that do you think and what would be the ramifications if that indeed happened?

BOCIURKIW: Well, one thing for sure, Rosemary, we’re in very dangerous unchartered territory right now with the incursions that have happened in the Sea of Azov. You know, you just showed the confessions of those -- of those servicemen. It now looks like this is going to become a very drawn-out affair. Russia is indicating that they’re going to keep these 20 or so men for quite some time, put them on trial.

And don’t forget that this has been something that’s been percolating for quite some time. Russia has been very intimidating in the Sea of Azov. It’s really almost choked off commercial traffic to Ukraine Airport. So we are heading I’m afraid to say to a very bad place, possibly even Russia controlling the entire Sea of Azov which by the way is about the size of Switzerland and also possibly even taking the coastal land in Ukraine, the courts of Mariupol and Berdyans’k. It’s a very, very difficult situation we’re in right now. [01:05:04] CHURCH: All right, so you see the endgame for Russia is controlled here in that part of the region. What role my politics be playing though in all this with Ukraine’s president facing an upcoming election?

BOCIURKIW: Sure. Well, you know there’s politics on both sides. Putin is not doing well, is not polling well amongst his own people because mostly of economic decline there. But as for Poroshenko, you know, there -- I was in contact with a lot of friends and former colleagues and journalists today in Ukraine and there’s a lot of fear and confusion over that martial law declaration.

Number one, it now appears that martial law is already in a bit in place for about 24 hours. Secondly, there’s not much clarity -- there’s not much clarity for journalists in terms of what they can report so a lot of speculation that Poroshenko who is polling also very, very badly may have done this as I pointed out in my CNN op-ed just now, may have done this to boost his poll ratings or even possibly delay the election scheduled for March 20 -- March of next year. So I hate -- I hate to ascribe negative motives to what he did but the timing is very, very odd.

CHURCH: Yes. I mean, politics does seem to have played a role as you say on both sides but we’re definitely seeing this too on the part of the Ukrainian president. What would be the impact of -- you say that this martial law is already in place, it’s certainly our understanding that it will -- it will take effect in a couple of hours. So talk to us though, once it does take effect or what sort of impact that will have on the country on currency and how the Ukrainian president would benefit from having martial law in place.

BOCIURKIW: Yes. Well, sure. I mean martial law powers does give him quite a bit of strong powers. The effect so far has been quite grave. The currency has plummeted against the U.S. dollar. People are actually thinking about different travel plans because they’re not sure what kind of documents they need. And also you know, it’s sad in a way. I don’t think the Ukrainians calculated this but right when you know, Ukraine is on the springboard for taking off in terms of business, it may -- I think it will deter investment and for sure it’s going to deter tourism.

Now Poroshenko, could very well extend the martial law declaration to go further and he could postpone the elections for March of next year which could give him more time to again as I said in the CNN piece to look like the comeback kid, to look like this strong patriot general, commander-in-chief that is there to protect the country because he needed to do something to boost his poll ratings. He wouldn’t win if an election was held tomorrow.

CHURCH: Right. And of course, at the same time, we know that European politicians are considering sanctions again against Russia as a way to solve this situation. We’ll be wishing to see what the international community does do in the midst of this. Michael Bociurkiw, thank you so much for your analysis. We appreciate it.

BOCIURKIW: My pleasure. CHURCH: And CNN is reporting all this week on the troubling rise of anti-Semitism in our special series “A SHADOW OVER EUROPE.” Our extensive investigation and polling tracks the surge in hate crimes and hate speech across Europe. And surprisingly, some of the ugliest examples come from Germany, the country whose Nazi leaders killed six million Jews during the Holocaust.

Germany has gone to great lengths to atone for the atrocities and to remember the victims but new polling commissioned by CNN shows 55 percent agree that anti-Semitism is once again a growing problem in Germany. 50 percent say Jewish people are at risk of racist violence in Germany and 16 percent believe most anti-Semitism is a response to the everyday behavior of Jewish people.

Well, Germany has seen a surge in neo-Nazis and far-right nationalist groups over the past few years but they’re not the only ones behind the rise in anti-Semitism. CNN’s Chief International Correspondent Clarissa Ward has our report.

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CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It’s a sight you don’t expect to see in Germany in 2018. Hundreds of right-wing extremists, many neo-Nazis marching through the nation’s capital. Close the border, the shout. Resistance, resistance.

[01:10:01] The far-right is enjoying a major comeback here bringing with it a troubling rise in anti-Semitism. According to government figures, anti-Semitic attacks have increased by 20 percent in the last five years. The number of violent right-wing extremists has gone up by nearly a third. This man tells us a shadowy cabal of globalists controls the world.

So when you talk about the elites and you talk about finance, is that another way of saying Jewish people?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

WARD: Yes?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

WARD: It is?

Let me say it this way, the banking system for sure, banks, finance, the economy mainly Jews, he says. We had more questions but our conversation was cut short by one of the march’s organizers.

I think we have someone who’s following.

Making anti-Semitic statements can be punishable under German law. But Christian Weissberger explains that neo-Nazis are finding new ways to express the same old hatred. And he should know, Weisberger used to be a right-wing extremist himself.

CHRISTIAN WEISSBERGER, FORMER NEO-NAZI: I would say that it is a form of anti-Semitism that disguises itself so they don’t talk about the Jew anymore, they talk about the Zionists or the globalists or the bankers.

WARD: And they are growing more brazen. One-man flashes a quick but unmistakable Nazi salute right in front of us, a crime in Germany.

It’s important to remember this isn’t any country, this is Germany. Just a few hundred yards from the March is a memorial for the millions of Jews murdered here in the Second World War.

More than seventy years after the Holocaust, Germany is still haunted by its past. And yet remarkably anti-Semitism is once again a growing problem here with 50 percent of Germans agreeing that Jewish people are now at risk of racist violence.

The statistic comes from a CNN poll that also found half of Germans believe Jews are at risk of hate speech. At Feinberg’s Israeli restaurant, owner Yorai says he gets threats every day.

YORAI FEINBERG, RESTAURANT OWNER: From murder to “I will break your knees,” “I’ll break your arms,” I’ll break your teeth.” They’re very creative in everything. You know, all the options that they want to break.

WARD: He was recently accosted by a man who told him Jews will end up in the gas chamber.

It’s only about the money for you. You will pay, the man says to him. Nobody wants you here.

He told you to go to the gas chambers or that you will go back to the gas chambers. You’ve heard things like that before?

FEINBERG: Very often.

WARD: Germany has acknowledged it has a problem recently appointing its first anti-Semitism czar. Felix Klein is focused on creating a nationwide system for reporting anti-Semitic crimes and on improving integration of Germany’s different communities.

FELIX KLEIN, ANTI-SEMITISM COMMISSIONER, GERMANY: Anti-Semitism has always existed in Germany also after 1945 and now though it is showing its ugly face more openly. Things that people would never have dared to say in a bar, in a restaurant, in a private surrounding, do so now using the social media or the net.

WARD: Germany has seen optics in neo-Nazi activity before most notably in the 1990s. While official statistics show that more than 90 percent of anti-Semitic attacks nationwide are from the far-right, there’s a new element of concern for the Jewish community, the arrival of 1.4 million Muslim refugees in the last three years.

Doron Rubin is the leader of Germany’s small Orthodox Jewish Community.

DORON RUBIN, HEAD, BERLIN’S KAHAL ADASS JISROEL CONGREGATION: With a lot of coming -- the incoming off a lot of immigrants who have a different history and different background and especially obviously coming from the Middle East have also because of as well a different attitude towards Jews.

KLEIN: When we talk about Muslim originated anti-Semitism, I think we can only win that battle with the help of the moderate Muslims. Without them, this wouldn’t be a successful fight.

WARD: Overall, the Jewish community remains anxious.

RUBIN: I think much more Jews now think again like can you call Jimmy at home and is it possible to live in the society. You can notice that a question that might not have been asked five years ago is starting to pop up again.

[01:15:01] WARD: It’s a question few in this country ever imagined would have to be asked again. Clarissa Ward, CNN Berlin.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: And reaction to CNN’s investigation is pouring in from everyday Europeans to world leaders. CNN’s Oren Liebermann sat down with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who says he’s worried but not surprised by the results of our survey.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL: I’m concerned because I think anti-Semitism is an ancient disease and when it rears its ugly head, it first attacks Jews, but it never stops with that.

And then, sweeps entire societies, as happened obviously in mid- century Europe. First in Germany and then throughout all of Europe and the consequences were horrible. Yes, I’m concerned. But I think we have to fight it and we are fighting.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Are you confident about the future of Jews in Europe?

NETANYAHU: I think it has to be protected, and we expect every government to act to protect Jews just as they would act to protect anyone living there, and many are. Individual Jews have a choice. They can always come here, but we respect their individual choice. But I also expect and actually see that the governments of Europe.

By and large, I have to say just about every one of them acts to fend off these attacks because they were wrong in their own right, and also they’re wrong, they’re dangerous for the society at large. And I’m glad to see this, this policy pretty much across the board.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Rabbi Marvin Hier is the dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and he joins me now from Los Angeles. Thank you so much for being with us.

CHURCH: I did want to ask you how surprised you were by the results of the CNN survey that found the memory of the Holocaust was starting to fade in Europe. And in some instances, people had no knowledge of it at all. Did that shock you?

HIER: That was the most shocking part of the poll. The fact that in the streets of Europe, where were they? The Nazi Holocaust was carried out in the center of every European city. In France, they were deported to Drancy from the streets of Paris. In the same is true in Austria. The same, of course, in Poland, in Germany.

Where were these people who say they never heard of the Holocaust? They must have been with the Elon Musk’s rocket to in another -- in another planet in order to not know that the Holocaust occurred in their -- in their cities.

And the other thing that is -- I’d say the person that would be most tracked would be Adolf Hitler. Before he committed suicide, Hitler wrote, it would take a few centuries before National Socialism or anti-Semitism would take hold again.

That would make it 2145. We’re only 75 years from Holocaust and here we are in every single European city. Blaming the Jews -- 25,000 Jews have left France. 40 percent of British Jews say they’re considering leaving. What has happened on our planet that people are saying they never knew about the Holocaust? It’s quite amazing, quite shocking.

CHURCH: It is confounding, absolutely. And the CNN survey also found that many stereotypes and myths about the Jewish people still exist. How do you go about dispelling those myths and stereotypes?

HIER: Well, it’s very hard to dispel. That first of all, a lot of it is plain jealousy. Rather than face to face, say the Jews are very good at finance.

Look, I watch the NBA. I would say that the African-Americans represented in the NBA are better than the Jews in terms of playing basketball. So, if you ask me why is that? I’d say because they’re better athletes.

And there’s nothing wrong would say, why are the Jews in finance? It’s something that they like and they’re good at. They’re also good at medicine. If one looks at what the Jews have contributed to human rights, to humanity, in the fields of medicine, in the fields of literature, on the fields of science.

So, rather than say we applaud them for that, they are jealous of it, and they say there must be some kind of a fix in, and there goes anti- Semitism again.

CHURCH: So, how do you -- how do you stop that? How do you change that thinking then that, that culture -- that responds to the Jewish people? What can you do about that?

[01:19:59] HIER: Well, you can -- you can simply educate them as to what happened during the Holocaust. You know, the other day I was rereading Commandant Hoess is the Commandant of Auschwitz. And he was asked by a Jewish psychiatrist, “How did you kill millions of people and you had a home in Auschwitz? How did you raise your children there? They said what kind of newspapers?

And he said, oh, we get -- he got the regular army newspaper. But he said, he would never read Julia (INAUDIBLE), because that was -- that would be just too upsetting to my -- to my family. So, the psychiatrist said to him, “You murdered millions of people and you wouldn’t take (INAUDIBLE) in your house.”

That’s the contradiction that we see now in Europe. The streets of Europe were full of the atrocities of the Holocaust. And now they say, they never heard of it, and worse, they blame the Jews. The Jews are too much involved in finance, they’re too much involved in medicine, it’s the old canard of hatred.

There’s no perfect cure, education is the best attempt, but unfortunately, it’s been on our planet for 3,500 years.

CHURCH: But why do you think we’re seeing this rising tide and anti- Semitism now at this time? Not only across Europe, but also here in the United States, even though, our children are taught about the Holocaust.

My children were taught about it, they still are, they’re reading books about it, they understand the Second World War, it’s part of their curriculum. So, the education is there, certainly in the United States, I can’t speak to it across Europe. But what is happening here? Why at this time?

HIER: Well, across Europe, first of all, Europe has particularly now let’s say, Germany, in France, they are very -- they’re large Muslim populations. There’s -- it would come as no shock.

The Muslims, many of them do not like Israel. Israel enters the fray and as a result of that -- look, you can’t wear a yarmulke, a skullcap. I’m wearing a skullcap, and if you wear a skullcap in France, anywhere in France or in Germany, they tell you not to do it.

And that shows you how prevalent anti-Semitism is. And the Israel is certainly a factor. People are jealous of Israel. People don’t know the facts about Israel. They complain that Israel took -- you know, they make believe that we had no history, we didn’t belong in the Middle East. We just arrived there, usurpers.

Ezekiel must have lived in Portugal. Jeremiah must have lived in France. Isiah must have you lived in England. And they deny the history of the Jewish people, and their connection to Israel. And they -- and they manifest themselves.

Look, in Germany, there are 10,800 extreme jihadists in Germany. They contribute to the anti-Semitism there.

CHURCH: Right. Rabbi Marvin Hier, thank you so much for talking with us. We do appreciate it. HIER: Thank you.

CHURCH: Well, on Thursday, we turn the focus to France, home to the largest Jewish population in Europe. Anti-Semitism has always been a problem, but attacks have increased in recent years.

Clarissa Ward talks to one woman who questions her family’s future in France.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WARD: Miriam and her family have considered moving from France. Joining the more than 55,000 Jews who have left since the year 2000.

In the sanctuary of their home, they celebrate Shabbat, a ritual ushered in every Friday night by lighting candles and reciting a blessing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Instead for the future of my baby here, I hope that he will have a future here. And you know, Jewish community is a part of history of France, really. And so, I think, France without any Jews is not anymore France.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Clarissa also talks to officials from the French government to find out what they’re doing to counter this trend. So, join us for the next report in our exclusive series, “A SHADOW OVER EUROPE: ANTI- SEMITISM IN 2018”. That’s Thursday, only here on CNN.

A Lion Air flight crash minutes after takeoff killing all 189 people on board. Now, a new report offers a glimpse of what went wrong before that crash. We’ll have the details for you, next.

And the push is on Britain’s prime minister took her breakfast campaign to Wales and Northern Ireland, next off Scotland. We’ll have that for you in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:27:25] CHURCH: Welcome back everyone. Well, we are learning more about what went wrong before that Lion Air crash that killed 189 people back in October.

In a new preliminary report, Indonesian investigators say the Boeing 737 aircraft experienced similar flight control problems on a previous flight, but the pilots took a different action.

It suggests Lion Air can do more to improve safety, and to ensure operation documents are properly filed. But it did not offer a definitive cause of the crash. Boeing has responded, saying the report doesn’t disclose the action taken by the pilots on the doomed flight.

Our Ivan Watson joins us now from Hong Kong with more on this. So, Ivan, people obviously want answers. They need to know the cause of the crash to establish if the problem was with the aircraft or the airline. Did we get any closer to finding out about that?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We certainly had some questions answered about the very frightening 11 moments in the air that this plane had before it crashed on October 29th with 189 passengers and crew on boards.

This is this preliminary report here that the Indonesian authorities issued. And what we’ve learned is that the pilots were battling an autopilot feature in the plane that has to a layman like me, a bit of an oxymoron title, runaway stabilizers.

So, whenever it gets a kind of reading from a sensor that had been malfunctioning on the same aircraft in previous days, it sends the plane into an automatic dive.

Now, for some reason, the pilots were not able to turn this feature off. So, what ended up happening throughout this 11-minute flight is that the pilots were manually pulling the plane up, and then, the plane was automatically diving down. And that this happened more than 30 times before the plane finally plunged into the Java Sea.

It was just 90 seconds into the flight, Rosemary, before the co-pilot radioed air traffic control at Jakarta’s main airport. And said that they were having some flight control problems, and they were asking the air traffic controllers to please confirm with them, their own plane’s altitude.

And some 30 seconds before the plane crashed, the pilot got on and complained that his instruments were giving him the wrong altitude reading. So, something seemed to have been going terribly wrong with the instruments and that seemed to have compounded this autopilot feature.

An autopilot feature that kicked in on the same plane on a flight the ’night before the deadly crash. But during that flight, a different pilot was able to turn this off and fly the plane safely, manually to its destination. Rosemary?

[01:29:49]

CHURCH: Terrifying details. And we -- we need to learn so much more about what happened with this plane, with this crash.

Ivan Watson bringing us the details there on that preliminary report from Hong Kong. Thank you so much

Let’s take a very short break here.

Still to come, Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman fires back at a report he met secretly with Julian Assange. Paul Manafort calls claims he and the WikiLeaks founder met covertly during a critical point in Mr. Trump’s campaign totally false. We’ll have details next.

Ukraine will impose martial law about half an hour from now in areas it says are under threat from Russia. The two countries are trading accusations after Russia ceased three ships Ukrainian naval ships near Crimea. Ukraine’s president says his country could be facing a full- scale war with Russia.

Reports from China say 22 people were killed and 22 injured in an explosion near a chemical factory in the north of the country. The fire is said to be contained and a search operation is now under way.

In Indonesia, investigators have released more preliminary findings about the Lion Air crash that killed 189 people in October. It says the Boeing 737 aircraft experienced similar flight control problems on a previous flight but the pilot took different action. The report recommends that Lion Air do more to improve safety. It did not offer a definitive cause of the crash.

Paul Manafort is fighting back against a report claiming he met secretly with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange around the same time he joined Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. Now this comes on the heels of a bombshell court filing by special counsel Robert Mueller stating that Manafort lied repeatedly to investigators even after agreeing to cooperate.

[01:35:03] “The Guardian” citing sources who say Manafort traveled to the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to meet with Assange between 2013 and 2016 including one meeting around March 2016, the same month Manafort joined the Trump campaign.